Do you know that your listing photos can make all the difference when trying to sell your house? No, we are not exaggerating. According to the NAR, 87% of home buyers found photos useful when searching for a home online.
You have to make a statement with your listing photos to get the attention of buyers. That is, your photos should make homebuyers go, “Wow, I want to live in this home!” Not “This is just the same as the others.”
How can you take such listing photos? Look no further. In this article, we provide a step-by-step guide on how to take great listing photos.
1. Declutter and tidy up your home
The first step to taking attractive listing photos is decluttering your home. Start by putting unnecessary items like personal portraits, clothes, and kitchen appliances away. No homebuyer wants to see photos of a living room with clothes piled on the couch.
Next, you should clean all windows, furniture, and scrub the kitchen counters to keep everything spotless. You want to make a lasting impression on homebuyers, and it is only possible if everything looks perfect. Buyers love that kind of stuff!
2. Stage your home
You have to undo the live-in look in your home and make the whole place look clean. Stage your home to bring out its best features. Remember, homebuyers may not like what you like in a home. Therefore, let the rooms look neutral with only a few touches of your personality.
3. Hire a professional photographer
Even though you are good with cameras, you may not be as skilled as a professional photographer. And this is why you should not try taking your listing photos by yourself. Hire a professional.
Professional home photographers (not just any photographers) know special tricks to bring out the best of the home. For example, there’s a technique that allows the photographer to take photos with different focus settings and then merge them together to capture details on both sides of a window. (Otherwise, you can either focus on what’s outside the window or what’s inside the window but one side will look blurry or be hard to see due to glare.)
The benefits of hiring a professional photographer outweigh trying to save costs.
For starters, houses with photos taken by professional photographers sell 32% faster than other homes. Also, they sell for about 3,000 – $11,000 more than the rest.
4. Take advantage of the natural lighting
In today’s eco-friendly world, homebuyers are concerned about how much light their rooms can let in during the day. They don’t want to keep their lights on every time of the day. Also, it saves them the cost of electricity charges.
Hence, take pictures of the whole place during the day to show off your rooms’ natural lighting. You can do that by opening your windows to let the sunlight in when taking the pictures. Also, if you also turn on all the lights in the house, you will demonstrate the full effect of what light does to the house, which can make a big difference.
5. Showcase your home exterior
Before taking your exterior photos, remove distractions like cars and waste bins from your home front. Tidy up your front lawn, cut your grass, and remove the water spots from your windows by scrubbing them with extra strength vinegar with a little Dawn dish soap. (Home Depot carries 30% acetic acid, but wear heavy gloves, eye protection, a respirator with an acid gas cartridge, and be careful with it! It can etch metal and damage things that aren’t glass!)
Take your exterior shots after midday when the sun is a bit less intense. While taking these photos, focus on the flowers, trees, and grasses – homebuyers with families will surely love to see that. If you have a pool, ensure that the water is clean, clear, and sparkly before taking the photos.
6. Take night photos
What does your house look like at night? Don’t you think your homebuyer will want to know?
Take photos of your home at night to showcase what your house looks like at night. This will better help them envision what it will feel like to live in your house. While taking the photos, remember to put on all your exterior lights. If you can install some solar-powered lights around the walkways, that can boost the exterior look without breaking your budget like professional exterior lighting might.
7. Take aerial photography
Ask your photographer to take aerial photos of your home to showcase its beauty. These photographs will give your home’s look a new dimension and display qualities that can’t be seen in ground photography. Many professional home photographers have drones they can use for aerial photos.
For example, homebuyers will get to see how green the grasses around your area are, how nice the neighborhood looks, or how near your home is to the local mall.
8. Don’t depend on editing
After taking your listing photos, you may use a photo editing application like adobe photoshop to improve them. However, try not to depend entirely on editing to make your listing photographs look good. You should only edit the listing photos for minor changes or to make up for limitations in the camera.
You see, homebuyers are attracted to homes that give a natural feeling when searching. Hence, if your listing photos are too edited, they will look fake or deceptive to homebuyers, especially if the home looks nothing like the photos when they actually see it in person.
9. Choose the best photos
Take as many listing photos of your home as possible so that you will have plenty of options to choose from. Put the buyers in mind when selecting the pictures. Which part of the house do buyers want to see more? Have I selected enough pictures to showcase my curb appeal?
Remember, you want home buyers to do more than just staring at the listing photos. What you want is for them to take action and contact you.
Let Bost Redevelopment handle everything for you
Getting a professional photographer to take your listing photos can be frustrating. Not everyone who calls themselves professionals are actually professionals. Hence, let an expert take care of this and other parts of the home sale process for you.
At Bost Redevelopment, we will use our marketing expertise to ensure you get the best buyer for your home at the maximum value possible. Want to talk more about your options? Please leave us a message below with your contact information. Remember that you get a 5-day cruise vacation for 2 if we successfully help you sell your house, so, what are you waiting for?
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